Word
O piloto perdeu o controlo do carro.
Meaning
The driver lost control of the car.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of O piloto perdeu o controlo do carro.
o carro
the car
perder
to lose
o piloto
the driver / the pilot
o controlo
the control
Questions & Answers about O piloto perdeu o controlo do carro.
Why is piloto used here instead of condutor or motorista for "driver"?
While piloto is the standard word for an airplane pilot, in the context of motorsports it specifically translates to a racing driver. If this sentence were about a regular person driving down the street, you would use condutor (for a driver in general) or motorista (for a professional driver, like a chauffeur or bus driver).
I have sometimes seen the word for "control" spelled as controle. Is controlo specific to Portugal?
Yes, this is a classic vocabulary difference between regional variants. In European Portuguese, the noun is spelled and pronounced controlo. In Brazilian Portuguese, it is controle.
Why does the Portuguese sentence use the article o before controlo, whereas in English we just say "lost control" without "the"?
Portuguese is much stricter about using definite articles (o, a, os, as) before abstract nouns than English is. Even though English drops the article for the general concept of "control", Portuguese requires it to show that the driver lost the control of the vehicle.